Edward Norton has cast Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in his upcoming detective film 'Motherless Brooklyn', which is based on Jonathan Lethem's 1999 novel of the same name.

Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have joined the cast of 'Motherless Brooklyn'.

Bruce Willis

The trio of major stars have been signed up for the project by Edward Norton, who is starring in and directing the project.

Norton has also penned the screenplay, an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's 1999 detective novel of the same name which is set in 1950s Brooklyn and focuses on protagonist Lionel Essrog, a Tourette syndrome sufferer who works with the characters Tony, Danny and Gilbert as a group known as the Minna Men for Frank Minna, the owner of a "seedy and makeshift" detective agency, but their world is rocked when their boss is stabbed to death.

Essrog will then become obsessed with solving the murder and his investigations will lead him to closely-guarded secrets that have ramifications for 'The Big Apple'.

Norton will play Essrog and Willis has signed up to portray Minna with the previously announced Willem Dafoe taking on the part of Paul Randolph.

Other confirmed cast members include Cherry Jones, Ethan Suplee, Leslie Mann, Josh Pais, Fisher Stevens, Michael K. Williams and Robert Wisdom and shooting on the project is already underway in New York City.